Nightmare
Nightmare (ナイトメア, Naitomea) is the main antagonist of the Soul series. He made his debut in Soulcalibur. He is the living incarnation of the cursed sword, Soul Edge, the objective of most other characters in the story. Nightmare has been present in one form or another in most games after Soulcalibur, appearing in Soulcalibur II, Soulcalibur III, Soulcalibur III: Arcade Edition, Soulcalibur Legends (as an unplayable boss), Soulcalibur IV, Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny, Soulcalibur V and Soulcalibur: Lost Swords. The Nightmare appearing in Soulcalibur V and Soulcalibur: Lost Swords is a new being. Soul Edge possessed the body of a swordsman and plots behind the scenes under the alias "Graf Dumas" as he plans to resurrect the full power of Soul Edge. Nightmare has been portrayed in the games as a violent and ruthless creature, constantly in search of souls to restore Soul Edge. He looks down on humans, considering them "pathetic" and "foolish", having no mercy for others, even to those who serve him, as shown in his Tales of Souls path where he considers killing his loyal servant Tira. What lies in his soul is Damnation and Destruction. In Soulcalibur V's promotional material he is referred to as The Symbol of Destruction. Description True to his nickname, Nightmare appears as a dark figure covered in dark blue armor that covers most of his body. His prominent feature is his right arm, which has been twisted and transformed into a large three-digit claw whose flesh overlaps his entire right arm and shoulder. He is depicted with Soul Edge in his left hand, symbolizing his polarity with Siegfried. Over the years, his appearance has progressively grown more and more demonic, as influenced by the state of Soul Edge himself. During the events of Soul Calibur, he was simply a suit of armor with a giant arm and horned helmet. In Soul Calibur II, Nightmare's armor changes design, now sporting long red hair from the back with bat wing-like ornaments on the sides replacing the horn. With a body to call his own at last, Nightmare returned to a suit similar to his original Soul Calibur variant, although slightly re-vamped, in Soulcalibur III, with the claw having stretched over his chest plate, possessing a rudimentary jaw lined with sharp teeth both on his shoulder and chest. As of Soulcalibur IV, Nightmare seems to have degraded into a body of dark energy. What was once flesh has now fully transformed into a compound of metal and bone. The mouth covering the chestplate from before has split open around his entire waist, connecting the legs and torso with a torrent of evil energy. The armor appears fused to his claw and much more metallic in appearance. No longer using Siegfried, the alternate costumes are much more severe in mutation. His alternate outfit in Soul Calibur IV displays traits similar to Night Terror. Following the destruction of the original Nightmare, Soul Edge obtains a new host in Soulcalibur V, resulting in the rise of a new Nightmare. His design returns to a more traditional look best likened to his appearance in Soul Calibur II. He retains the long horn on his helmet from his other designs, and both the horn and parts of his arm display a menacing orange glow. Despite having a new host, he retains his fighting style from past games. Soul Edge, like Nightmare himself, has also reverted to a design more like its appearance in earlier titles, despite having a different official design for the game. In Legendary Souls, the SCIV version of Nightmare appears as one of the opponents, albeit the dark energy and smoke being replaced with flames, resembling Inferno to an extent. In the spinoff Soulcalibur Legends, Nightmare's appearance is taken from Soulcalibur III but it noticeably more demonic, with his grieves having developed talons and his right leg having taken on the form of a large jaw, similar to his right shoulder. History Soul Edge Even though Nightmare originally debuted in Soulcalibur, there was a "prototype" of his character in Soul Edge. In the home version, an extra character named Siegfried! was added as an unlockable character. Siegfried! was an alternate version of normal Siegfried taken from his no-input ending, in which he is consumed by Soul Edge. This early version was very different from the current Nightmare, having crimson-red armor and a more flesh-like design with no mutated Nightmare Arm. He has no story nor ending, and only used Siegfried's Soul Edge without effects. Oddly, he uses the same voice actor as Siegfried. Soulcalibur In Soulcalibur, the concept was expanded and turned into an official character, though with changes to the design. His red armour was changed to a dark blue armor and its design turned more metallic instead of fleshy. This was also the first appearance of the Nightmare Arm. Siegfried's body was slowly being mutated by the sword's terrible power, causing his right arm to morph into a hideous claw. Despite the Nightmare Arm only having three large fingers, it didn't seem to hinder his combat abilities at all. He now wields his own version of Soul Edge, sporting a single eye on its blade, something that would become the trademark of the various versions of the weapon, and the creations made from it, such as Charade. Nightmare was a starting character whose style resembled Siegfried's former moveset. Siegfried was later added to the cast as a time-release character and inherited the same style with minor changes. Nightmare's profile on the game explained how Siegfried obtained Soul Edge after a fierce fight against its former owner, the dread pirate Cervantes de Leon and the fiery demon that spawned within it afterward, Inferno. After that, the sword spoke to him, promising the resurrection of his dead father if he helped it gather souls. Unaware that it was a trick to restore the sword's power, Siegfried agreed and started a killing spree which eventually made him weak to Soul Edge's will. Nightmare was born soon after. Soulcalibur II Nightmare's incarnation in Soulcalibur II remains mostly the same, with minor upgrades to his fighting style, mainly on his stance. As his and other character's profiles explain, he formed a group with Astaroth, Isabella "Ivy" Valentine and Aeon Calcos (the Lizardman) in an attempt to speed the gathering of souls and restoration of the sword's power. But during the ritual to restore Soul Edge, Castle Osthreinsburg was assaulted by Kilik, Maxi, and Chai Xianghua. With his allies either defeated or missing, Nightmare confronted Kilik and Xianghua and was ultimately defeated, later falling into the collapsing void where they fought. After waking up, Siegfried, apparently free, regained his senses and tried to distance himself from the world to atone for the sins he committed as Nightmare. But the sword slowly regained control over the young man and eventually Nightmare resurfaced to start another massacre on Europe. In this game, Nightmare is a starting character, while Siegfried turned into a third costume option for him. In his second costume option, it can be seen that most of the right side of Siegfried's chest has been corrupted in a similar manner to his arm, and his right eye has changed to a golden color. Soulcalibur III Before the events of Soulcalibur III, Nightmare met with Raphael Sorel in the Ostrheinsburg Chapel and defeated him. As he stepped forward to kill the man and harvest his soul, Siegfried's mind started to struggle with Soul Edge for freedom. Raphael, watching as Nightmare stood motionless as a result of the mind struggle, released an attack and pierced Soul Edge's eye. This allowed Siegfried to reclaim his body and also released the holy blade Soul Calibur from within Soul Edge. In a state of temporary sanity, Siegfried then drove the holy sword into the cursed Soul Edge and sealed both together, nullifying both powers. However, the will of Soul Edge escaped the sword and entered the dark blue armour that Siegfried quickly discarded after reclaiming his body. Eventually, the mysterious immortal Zasalamel found the armor and created a new body for the immobile Soul Edge out of the countless evil souls haunting Ostrheinsburg. This new Nightmare restarted his reign of terror in search of Siegfried and the rest of Soul Edge, as well as a new host to escape into, as the new body was heavily unstable. In gameplay, Nightmare's original fighting style was split between him and Siegfried, now two individual characters. Whilst Siegfried's style replicates the previous games when he was Nightmare, the new Nightmare was given a rather different playstyle, one that was far more brutal, powerful, and barbaric than he was previously. His speed is also much faster, now capable of matching nimble characters such as Kilik and Heishiro Mitsurugi. He also gained an individual story, since it was the first time he wasn't using another character's body as a host. Nightmare, alongside Siegfried, remain starting characters and two of the main characters in which the Tales of Souls revolves around, as every character searches for rumors and traces of either one of them. They also possess their own event around the last chapters of the story, where both have a short duel, where the player later confronts the winner. His fighting style and weapon selection is available to use in the Character Creation mode under the name "Soul of Nightmare" to characters created under the Barbarian class after achieving level 30 in Chronicles of the Sword, or playing 50 matches in anything else (e.g Soul Arena). Soulcalibur IV Nightmare appears once again in Soulcalibur IV. By this time, Nightmare's entire body had been twisted by the power of Soul Edge completely and utterly. As the storyline of this game begins, Nightmare and Siegfried found each other once more at the Lost Cathedral. Soul Edge was freed from the Soul Embrace because of the secret art performed by Zasalamel. Nightmare took the evil sword as Siegfried became the new wielder of Soul Calibur. Then the two fought, the clashing of their swords gradually destroyed the cathedral, ripping both Nightmare and Siegfried apart only to be repaired by their swords after falling into a warp created by their duel. Conveniently, both Nightmare and Soul Edge landed in Ostrheinsburg. Waves caused by the clash of the two swords awakened the fragments of Soul Edge that were scattered all over the world. The fragments were pulled into Soul Edge and all were consumed, restoring the blade to its whole form. As Nightmare seeded roots into the land, Ostrheinsburg soon became a cursed city that Nightmare would utilize to devour souls. The Azure Knight then prepared for his final battle against the wielder of Soul Calibur. The storylines involving Algol feature Algol, the ancient king, whose will was strong enough to totally resist Soul Edge's power and who also created Soul Calibur in case Soul Edge ever needed to be destroyed, builds himself imitations of both soul swords wielding them simultaneously as he plots his resurrection and returns to his post as king. He gains the real Soul Edge and Soul Calibur by defeating Nightmare and Siegfried respectively. Soulcalibur V After its destruction by Soul Calibur, Soul Edge was shattered, its fragments scattered across the world. However, minions still loyal to the cursed sword managed to track down the shards, and reassembled as much of the sword as they could. Eventually, it regained consciousness and possesed a new host. Five years later, Soul Edge was reborn. Unlike the Azure Knight who had swept through Europe as a genocidal monster, this "new Nightmare" preferred subterfuge and diplomacy. He assumed the name Dumas, and became part of the inner circle of Emperor Rudolf II of the Holy Roman Empire. He became the Graf, or Count, of the Kingdom of Hungary. From this position he would sent his servants to regain the missing Soul Edge fragments while organizing purges against innocents he deemed "malfested" in order to harvest souls to bolster his strength. In 1607, Graf Dumas manipulates Patroklos into slaughtering "malfested" by claiming to help him search for his missing sister, Pyrrha. Eventually, Patroklos violently leaves his service and flees. Later, after reuniting with his sister, he encounters Dumas, who has reached his full power and reveals himself as Nightmare. He attacks Partroklos but is stopped by Pyrrha, who becomes truly malfested. With his power restored, Nightmare and his corrupted followers cause war throughout Central Europe. At Castle Denevér, he is defeated and killed by Z.W.E.I., and Pyrrha becomes the new host of Soul Edge. Pyrrha is then defeated by Patroklos, and in the end both Soul Edge and Soul Calibur are sealed back inside Astral Chaos. Fighting Style Nightmare's main strategies of fighting have remained similar throughout the sequels of Soulcalibur. He features slow, yet somewhat explosive and high-damage attacks. Most recently in Soulcalibur IV, Nightmare becomes infamous for his near endless, fast and powerful combos, occasionally causing opponents to blast up into the air after a strong uppercut slash from his Soul Edge. 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